Hell Is Other People
by zalrb
Summary: When Katherine and Kai meet in Hell, they decide to team up to get each other out of it because each of them have people on Earth. Each of them have unfinished business.


Everything was pitch black here and loud with anguish, with screams and sobs, with cries of pure, unadulterated pain. Katherine kept running even though she couldn't see where she was going. She could _never_ see where she was going but the instinct to run was second nature to her even here, even in hell. The torment was inescapable, that was the point, but she was never one to willingly submit herself to anything she didn't want to endure even when she had no choice in the matter.

"STOP!" someone cried out from the darkness. "PLEASE MAKE IT STOP."

"Oh, shut up!" Katherine called back as she ran. "All of you shut _up!"_

It bothered her how she seemed to be the only person who could suffer her pain in silence, how everyone had to make a grand, self-pitying display of their misery. There was only one person in this entire dimension she could stand and that was because he had a quiet to him that screamed with pain but with a pain that fuelled him with rage and she could respect anger more than theatrical grief. Whenever she managed to find him in this vast blackness, it did nothing to ease her pain but she felt a little less alone in it, a little more out of her head and that was the best thing; you didn't want to be trapped in your head here. That was how they got you.

Katherine kept running; she ran so fast her teeth felt like they were bleeding, her very breathing seemed to shatter her chest. She was trying to outrun the pit in her stomach, like she always did, trying to outpace the hollowness in her head, but a cold emptiness overtook her with each of her quick steps, slowly enveloping her from within, and she knew what was coming.

Which memory were they going to force her to relive now? It wouldn't be when she came home to Bulgaria to find her entire family slaughtered. They seemed to be bored with that tragedy, bored with plaguing her with the familiar gut-wrenching guilt and sadness that ate at her whenever she saw her mother's butchered body. Would it be watching Nadia die in a room filled with the people who conspired to kill her, in a room full of her murderers?

 _When I find out who "they" are, I'm going to bash in their skulls until there's nothing left but blood and bone,_ Katherine thought. It didn't matter if they weren't human or even if they weren't corporeal. One day she was going to claw her way out of hell and when she did she'd make them pay. It was what she did. Katherine Pierce never forgot a slight and this was more than a slight, this was an attack on her.

She kept running. And running. Running still. And then she was motionless. No more darkness. Stefan's room. 1846. The evening of her "death". This was new. They had never allowed her to relive a good memory before. They had never allowed her to inhabit her past body either so that it was as if she were actually _living_ the memory.

Katherine sat at the mirror, aware of Stefan's eyes on her, aware of how he sat perched and topless at the edge of the bed, drinking her in. She felt his stare all over her skin, his quiet yearning charged the air, subtly building a tension between them and it excited her in a way that no other's longing for her had. She needed something to do with her hands and so picked up a necklace, putting the silver against her neck.

"What is that?" asked Stefan.

"A gift," she replied.

"From Damon?"

Katherine raised her eyebrows. "From Emily actually," she said. Stefan's jealousy whenever he allowed himself to express it never failed in pleasing Katherine, which surprised her. The fragility of the male ego normally annoyed her; the way men would stare at her with wounded expressions whenever they were reminded that she was not theirs and theirs alone had become bothersome over the decades; a testament to her power, fuel for her own ego but also tiresome. But she was never tired of Stefan; his want for her only exacerbated her want for him, compelled her to bind him to her even tighter, tying him to her with more pleasure than he could handle.

She turned to face him and started to walk over to the bed. "And when will you stop worrying about Damon?"

"I want you all to myself," said Stefan.

"Just as he wants me but I'm the one who gets to make all of the rules," said Katherine as she slipped on a silk robe.

"And why is that?"

There was a playfulness to Stefan's tone, a hunger in his expression that wasn't needy but daring, challenging, and it called to Katherine, bringing her closer to him. "Because I'm spoiled."

"Yes you are."

She was in front of him now. "And selfish…" Stefan moaned in agreement and Katherine pushed him back onto the bed, keen on filling the room with echoes of those moans. He refused to lie all the way back on the sheets, raising his head slightly so he could still see her and his stubbornness peaked Katherine's arousal. She looked him directly in the eye as she smoothed her hand over his bare chest. She would _make_ him lie all the way down, she would leave him no choice. "And because I can do this…"

Katherine lowered her head and grinned at the gasp that escaped his mouth before she even touched his skin. Her lips grazed his torso as she kissed his stomach and she couldn't help her own sighs as she pressed herself against him. She relished the feel of him, the hard marble of his body, the sounds he couldn't control when she did something exactly the way he liked it, which was often, which was always. His pleasure inflamed her own. She would never let him forget what she could do to him, the places she could take him to, the places he took her to in return. His panting echoed in her ears as she ran her tongue along his chest and it awakened her baser urges, the louder he panted, the longer she sighed, the more excited she became, the more her gums itched and belly ached as a hunger gnawed at her gut, chewing a void in her stomach that only Stefan could satiate. The memory of his blood lingered on Katherine's tongue as she revelled in his scent, in the taste of his skin. Stefan must've sensed the earnestness in Katherine's lust, in her hunger because she felt rather than saw him tilt his head back onto the bed, a strangled groan deep in his throat, a wordless plea to never stop.

She cursed herself for coming back, for succumbing to her weakness to see him one last time, be with him one last time, entwine herself with him one last time. She would do more than miss this, she would crave it, hanker for it, for him, for them, she would yearn for it for eternity; everything stopped when they were wrapped up together, entangled in the sheets with one another and she would never experience that kind of visceral bliss again. Why would she remind herself of what no one else would be able to give her? Katherine had been with many men and she had never known until Stefan that pleasure could suspend time, could stretch the imagination; she had never known how much she could enjoy a man enjoying her and she knew she would never know it again.

The impending expiration of their elation caused Katherine to experience Stefan with even more sincerity; she kissed his neck, her veins darkening with each of his ragged breaths, and ran her nose along the dips of his face until they were looking at each other, only a breath away from one another. Stefan's gazed at her with a passion that made Katherine weak; his eyes were clouded and raw, his chest heaved, his entire body radiated with a desperate desire to be claimed.

Katherine sighed, "And this…"

She sank her fangs into the side of Stefan's neck and felt him harden beneath her, urging her to drink him with even more flourish, pinning his wrists above his head. He cried out in surprise at his own desire for the bite and continued to moan. He was hers, Katherine thought. In this he was hers. But … but … she was his in a way she was no one's before, him losing himself in her only caused her to lose herself in him and that meant she belonged to him as much as he belonged to her.

Katherine's hold on Stefan's wrists slackened, coughing, his blood, it wasn't right, it wasn't his, not all of it …something was wrong … pain, burning … she was … was she dying? What was happening … Stefan's concerned yells …

Everything went black.

Despair. She wanted to go back to just before that moment, when time suspended, when he was lost and she was lost with him, in him, she wanted to go back, she had to go back, she'd been happy, she'd been connected, for once, a breath, a release in almost a century of running, a century of loneliness.

Everything shuddered. Fire in the night. Loud voices. A door opened and out of the haze, Katherine saw Damon and … Stefan. They pulled her out of the carriage, fumbling with her restraints. Fools! She didn't want this.

Damon's earnest voice. "We're going to get you out of here."

He was going to ruin everything!

"Damon, hurry!" said Stefan. "Hurry!"

Katherine tried to communicate to Stefan with a look, with a blink. _Leave. LEAVE._ She had a plan! She _always_ had a plan! Her wrists were now unbound. She couldn't speak, she couldn't move, she had consumed too much vervain. A blast. A _g_ un shot. Damon down.

"No!"

Stefan ran over to Damon. "No! Damon…"

Katherine watched as Stefan picked up a gun and a surge of relief shocked her into lucidness as he was shot down next to Damon; he had her blood in his system, she would see him again, time would suspend again, they would be together again. She locked her eyes with his, his gurgling breaths for life a song in her ears, she was there, with him, at the beginning of the end, at the end's beginning. "I love you, Stefan" she whispered. She was being lifted. Dragged. Back into the carriage. Her eyes never leaving Stefan's as the life slowly seeped out of his. Everything would be as it was. He was dying. He was transitioning. Her plan for survival hadn't interrupted her plan for their lives. They would be reunited.

And then —

Darkness loud with anguished cries screamed in Katherine's ears, splintering her mind, snuffing out her eyesight, tormenting her with every shade of despair at once, driving her mad with memories of Stefan moving on, Stefan with Rebekah, Stefan with Elena, Stefan with Caroline, Stefan without her, Stefan without the weight of her memory. Stefan without the weight of her death. Redemption denied. A painfully bright image of blazing fire flashed before her eyes, the flames contorting into a vivid, horrible face, cackling at her, searing her head with pain.

"Reunited only to be sent here! HE SENT YOU HERE."

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut but the image wouldn't go away, the face burrowed into her head. "SHUT UP. SHUT UP."

The cackling a loud screech that seemed to burst the vessels in her brain. "HE'S THE REASON YOU'RE HERE."

"I HATE YOU," she screamed, clenching her hair. "I HATE YOU." She scratched at her face. _"LEAVE ME ALONE."_

"So much for suffering in silence," said a voice.

Katherine snapped her eyes open. It was still pitch black but the darkness was different, anguished but not terrorizing, the cries around her familiar in their hollow distress. She recognized the voice.

"What the hell was that?" she said. _"Ow."_ It hurt to speak. Her entire face was sore from all the scratching she'd done.

"A new circle of hell," said the voice. "Torment you with unfinished business. What could've been, what if. Very effective."

"Ugh." Katherine rolled her eyes. "Why should I even listen to you about this? How would you know about another circle of hell, I've been here longer than you have."

"But I've been done worse things."

"I highly doubt that."

"Don't make it into a competition, Katherine. You'd lose."

"I never lose."

"Then why are you here?"

"Why are you?" said Katherine. "It's not like you came here to vacation."

"I was blind-sighted," said the voice.

"So was I," said Katherine defiantly. "Ugh. Go away, you're irritating me."

"They really got to you this time, didn't they?" The voice was mocking rather than concerned. "You're still shaking. What did they show you?"

"Like I would tell you," said Katherine.

"Ahh," said the voice. "It's a boy. I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I didn't think your unfinished business would be something as cliche as a lover."

"And what about you?" said Katherine. "Who's name do you cry out every fifteen minutes? You can't even get through it because it hurts you too much. Just constant, Buh-buh-buh-buh-, you're completely twisted up over some girl. Or some guy. Whatever."

"Bonnie Bennett is more than some girl, she's more than a _girl,_ a woman, she's —"

Katherine furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait." She reached out into the darkness until her hand made contact with something solid, she felt her palm on a shirt collar and she pulled on it, pushing the body against what had to be a wall.

"Whoa, Katherine," said the voice. "I can't lie, I'm not entirely surprised by this but while I think that you're one truly, awful human being, I'm not really feeling the connection necessary—"

"If you don't stop talking I will bash your skull against this wall," said Katherine. "Did you say Bonnie Bennett? You know Bonnie Bennett?"

"Yes."

"And Stefan Salvatore? Do you know him?"

"Heard of him, never had the pleasure. His brother, Damon, though. He's the one who decapitated me and sent me here. God, I cannot wait until I pull the skin off his bones little by little."

"What makes you think you'll get the chance?"

"This isn't the first hell dimension I've been stuck in, OK? Breaking out of them is kind of what I do."

"Believe it or not, _Malachai,_ I want to help you."

"I hate the way you say my name, no one calls me Malachai."

"I'm not no one," said Katherine. "Do you want my help or not?"

"I don't know," said Kai. "I mean, no offence, but we're in hell, we didn't get here because we do things for other people out of the kindness of our hearts."

"I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart, I'm doing this because I'm coming with you. Stefan and Bonnie are most likely in the same place or they know where the other one is, I would claw my out of this godforsaken place to see him again. He's that person for me. Is Bonnie that person for you? Whether to kill her or try to make her loveyou because there's no way in hell that Pure-Hearted, Judgemental Bon-Bon has warm gooey feelings about you, but I don't care, is she the one you'd claw yourself out of hell for?"

"Yes," said Kai.

"Then our goals are aligned," said Katherine. "Do we have a deal?"

"Yes, we have a deal," said Kai.

"Good." Katherine removed her hand from Kai's chest.

"It'll be just like The Great Escape. Ooh no, Prison Break. I'm so glad I got to catch up on that series when I binge-watched Netflix the last time I got out of a hell dimension."

"Oh my God, do you _ever_ stop talking?" Katherine yelled.


End file.
